About Me

I was a reporter and columnist for 40 years for a chain of newspapers in the suburbs of Chicago. I'm a military veteran having served in the United States Army Combat Engineers (Cpl. E-4) and a Korean War veteran with an Honorable Discharge from the Armed Forces of the United States of America

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

This is a fantastic video giving you a ringside seat as ground control communicates with an Apache helicopter as it zeroes in on Taliban planting IEDs on the ground. Listen and watch as the helicopter is given the command "clear to fire." Bye, bye Taliban.TURN UP YOUR SOUNDWATCH VIDEO HERE:http://www.youtube.com/v/pfxxMSFF9aI&hl=en_US&fs=1CLICK ON LINK ABOVE AND THEN DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO

You get two for one here as this video shows Canadian soldiers engaged in a violent firefight with the Taliban in Afghanistan. TURN UP YOUR SOUNDWATCH VIDEO HERE:http://www.youtube.com/v/YU0UnNDBgXE&hl=en_US&fs=1CLICK ON LINK ABOVE AND THEN DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO

In this video you hear ground control directing the crew of a U.S. Apache helicopter to take every precaution to avoid collateral damage as they attack a column of Taliban on the ground in Afghanistan.Ground control mentions six times how the crew should avoid any civilian casualties. In the end, 14 Taliban are killed with zero casualties for the United States.TURN UP YOUR SOUNDWATCH VIDEO HERE:http://www.youtube.com/v/m1jD7v2ucBc&hl=en_US&fs=1CLICK ON LINK ABOVE AND THEN DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO

Video shows what remains of a jeep after it was totally destroyed by an IED outside of Camp Eggers, Kabul, Afghanistan. WARNING: VERY EXPLICIT FOOTAGETURN UP YOUR SOUNDWATCH VIDEO HERE:http://www.youtube.com/v/YehueWwxhbo&hl=en_US&fs=1CLICK ON LINK ABOVE AND THEN DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO

This blogger was serverly criticized for publishing a video of a recent bombing in Baghdad that left 10 people dead and scores wounded.We suggested the highly touted peace in Iraq is on the brink of collapse as the provincial Iraqi government struggles to hold elections next month. Below is a reort from IRAQ TODAY http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com which proves the point I was making the other day.Iraq is in a free fall and there is already talk in some quarters that U.S. troops will have to stay in IRAQ longer than President Obama anticipated. Reported security incidents Baghdad MONDAY AND YESTERDAY.#1: An explosion late Monday targeted the Baghdad political office of al-Ahrar, a party that includes followers of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, police said. Punched-out round holes in the office walls indicate that at least two rockets were fired at the building, observers said. Officials blamed a roadside bomb for the explosion, which killed one person and wounded three, including Majid Hussein Taha - a director of the Ministry of Agriculture and a candidate running on the party's ticket.#2: Two civilians were wounded on Monday evening in a sticky bomb blast in western Baghdad, a police source said. “A bomb, stuck by unknown gunmen to a civilian vehicle, went off near Sahet al-Aordon in western Baghdad, wounding two civilians and injuring the vehicle,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.#3: Three civilians have been injured in a house blast near the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a police source said on Tuesday. “Unknown gunmen blew up a house in Khan Dari area, west of Baghdad, destroying large parts of the house and wounding three civilians who were close by at the time of the bombing,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.Mosul:#1: A car bomb exploded Tuesday outside a police crime lab in northern Iraq, killing at least two people, Iraqi authorities said. The car bomb was parked outside a side entrance to the lab in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometres) northwest of Baghdad, said Lt. Col. Salim Ibrahim, an area commander. It wounded seven people, including five police officers, he said. The explosion knocked over concrete blast walls and caused minor damage to the building, Ibrahim said.#2: Gunmen also opened fire on two Christian college students waiting at a bus stop in Mosul, killing one and wounding the other, a police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.#3: Greengrocer Fatukhi Munir, an Assyrian Catholic, was gunned down inside his shop in a drive-by shooting late on Monday#4: and armed assailants killed Rayan Salem Elias, a Chaldean Christian, outside his home on Sunday.#5: An Iraqi army soldier was killed on Monday in an armed attack on an army checkpoint in western Mosul, a police source said. “Unknown gunmen attacked an army checkpoint in 17 Tamouz neighborhood in western Mosul, killing a solider,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.#6: Two Iraqi army officers and one civilian were wounded when a roadside bomb hit on Tuesday an army patrol in eastern Mosul city.#7: A roadside bomb killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded two civilians in northern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.#8: Police said they found the body of a Planning Ministry employee with gun shot wounds on Monday in western Mosul, police said

The Taliban have resorted to an old combat tactic of using civilians as human shields in the battle now underway for control of Marjah, Afghanistan.Afghan Official: Taliban Using Human Shields

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

MARJAH, Afghanistan — Taliban fighters are increasingly using civilians as human shields in the assault on the southern town of Marjah, an Afghan official said Wednesday as military squads resumed painstaking house-to-house searches in the Taliban stronghold.

About 15,000 NATO and Afghan troops are taking part in the offensive around Marjah, which has an estimated 80,000 inhabitants and was the largest town in southern Helmand province under Taliban control. NATO hopes to rush in aid and public services as soon as the town is secured to try to win the loyalty of the population.

With the assault in its fifth day, insurgents are firing at Afghan troops from inside or next to compounds where women and children appear to have been ordered to stand on a roof or in a window, said Gen. Mohiudin Ghori, the brigade commander for Afghan troops in Marjah.

"Especially in the south of Marjah, the enemy is fighting from compounds where soldiers can very clearly see women or children on the roof or in a second-floor or third-floor window," Ghori said. "They are trying to get us to fire on them and kill the civilians."

This video was made using night vision cameras and shows a U.S. company fighting off the Taliban in the mountains of Afghanistan.TURN UP YOUR SOUNDWATCH VIDEO HERE:http://www.youtube.com/v/eLANM2W6LsA&hl=en_US&fs=1CLICK ON LINK ABOVE AND THEN DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO

Video shows U.S. Army troops on a patrol in Afghanistan.The patrol suddenly comes under attack by the Taliban.WARNING: Strong languageTURN UP YOUR VOLUMEWATCH VIDEO HERE:http://www.youtube.com/v/Xu1cTil6xNI&hl=en_US&fs=1CLICK ON LINK ABOVE AND THEN DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO